1999 Ford Taurus SE from North America

Summary:

Faults:

General Comments:

As an American, I decided to buy American. What a mistake that was. This car has had nothing but problems since the first day I had it.

I owned a Ford Taurus Wagon in the 80's and that car caused me a living hell as well. I thought FORD would have improved over the years. I had a Nissan before this and it never caused me these kind of headaches.

People warned me. I was told FORD stands for Fix Or Repair Daily!!! They could not have been more right!!

13th Aug 2006, 14:33

I owned a 98 Taurus for years. I just had to get rid of it and wanted to locate another. This was the best car I have ever owned (an I have owned a lot) I had to replace only a cracked radiator reservoir and general maintenance. The only bad thing about this ride is the horrible gas mileage with a 3.0 DOHC. It seemed that I got better mileage out of my 79 T-Bird with a 351 V8.

25th Apr 2008, 22:08

This car was picked up as a used car. Based on the problems it appears the prior owner was quite hard on it. I personally would give more credence to a person who owned the car new or acquired it with low mileage. I have no doubt that these problems exist but the car has high mileage combined with age that would inevitably relate to mechanical breakdown.

24th Jun 2006, 20:59

I have been burned. My 1999 Taurus SE has had 3 transmissions already. I had to pay for all replacements because the car was used when I bought it with 60,000 miles in 2003, and the first break-down happened after my one year warranty expired. The third transmission is now on its last leg after only 10,000 miles.

I have changed brake pads and rotors for all 4 wheels twice in three years, more that I did in 10 years with my VW Jetta---I'm not exaggerating. And I am religious about maintenance; these problems literally just popped up. You don't expect your new rotors to wear out after 3,000 miles!

Just last week, I just spent $900 on the emissions control computer systems after failing the state emissions test. One would normally associate these problems with a very old car! My windshield wipers move without being turned on, and at the worst times when I'm on the road. They just start swinging back and forth.

Now I have new problem. When I brake, the whole car rattles in front, and all the bearings are bad.

All other problems aside, how does Ford get away with something as significant as this transmissions issue? I have three friends whose 1997, '98 and '99 Ford Tauruses, respectively, have had transmissions replaced--one of them twice? I had a 1997 VW Jetta that took 190,000 miles with none of these problems.